"Get up, we have to leave fast. What we faced in the dream wasn't his full power—I managed to contain part of his abilities through dream control."With those urgent words and a deeply furrowed brow, Liam got up quickly from the bed, moving with tense precision, as if every second mattered.
Carrie felt a shiver run through her entire body when she heard that. Her skin prickled, and a cold knot formed in her stomach. If Pennywise could already do something like that inside a dream… what would he be capable of in reality, without limits, without barriers?
"Yes, I'm coming." Carrie hurried to her feet as well, almost stumbling as she stood up, her heart pounding hard and her hands slightly trembling.
"Go wake Mom up, we're leaving in a few minutes. I'll be waiting downstairs." Liam said firmly, already walking toward the door without looking back.
Carrie nodded quickly and headed to Liam's mother's room, her steps hurried but silent, as if fear itself forced her not to make a sound.
As Liam went down the stairs, he stopped dead when he looked out the window. Outside, several police cars were arriving, their lights off but their presence heavy and unavoidable.
"Looks like we'll have to leave by force today." He shook his head, though deep down he had already seen it coming. His lips pressed into a hard line.
"We're ready." Carrie came downstairs with her mother. The three of them looked disheveled, dressed in a rush, hair messy, faces marked by exhaustion and tension. Liam didn't care; he didn't want to waste time on something so insignificant now.
Liam watched as his mother carried a small suitcase, held tightly against her side. Inside were important items: identification documents and a few essential belongings. They had talked the night before about what they should take. Liam didn't want to carry too much; too much weight would only slow them down.
He nodded to them and went out first, his steps firm and determined.
The morning was still gray, the sky covered by heavy clouds, though the sun was timidly trying to break through them. The patrol cars were parked in an orderly manner, not chaotically; this wasn't an improvised raid, but a calculated intervention.
Outside, Officer Anderson stood at the front, waiting for them, while other officers remained nearby, alert, with tense postures and hands close to their belts.
Officer Anderson stepped forward when Liam crossed the threshold. "Stop. We need you to answer some questions." He said firmly, locking eyes with them.
"I'm sorry, we don't have to answer anything. I saved that kid, and that's it." Liam replied impatiently, not lowering his gaze.
Officer Anderson frowned and ignored Liam. "Mrs. Kennedy, we need you to explain what happened to Georgie Denbrough." He insisted, turning his head to look directly at Liam's mother.
She looked at her son, searching for guidance. Liam shook his head clearly, slowly, without hesitation.
Officer Anderson was surprised by that, and memories of two cases that had ended up closed for lack of evidence surfaced in his mind.
The first was the death of her husband: a small wound on the foot, caused by a tack. Although they questioned the wife and the five-year-old son, no evidence of murder was ever found.
However, Officer Anderson remembered that, if one paid attention, there had been fear in Mrs. Kennedy's voice during those first days. Now, seeing this interaction, he couldn't help but let an absurd, hard-to-accept idea surface: what if the child had caused his father's death?
With that thought in mind, it became even easier to imagine that Liam could be responsible for the disappearance of the four boys that had occurred three years earlier. There was evidence that those boys had bullied the girl White. And if he had been capable of killing his father at five years old… why not four teenagers who harassed his friend?
Liam noticed how Officer Anderson stiffened for an instant and then adopted a more alert, more defensive posture.
Liam scanned the police cars and the surroundings carefully. He saw cameras installed on the vehicles, probably new thanks to technological advances.
"Stop. You're under arrest." Officer Anderson said, convinced that it would be best to take them to the station first and ask questions later, after seeing the unsettling calm in the eyes of the fifteen-year-old boy.
Liam and Carrie remained calm at this, though Liam's mother startled, breathing rapidly.
"Carrie, destroy the cameras in the cars, the tires, everything they can use to communicate, and knock them unconscious." Liam said telepathically, with cold clarity.
Carrie barely nodded, focusing. The next second, the cameras in the cars exploded, followed by the radios, and then the tires, which deflated or burst violently.
The officers turned in fear, aiming at their own vehicles as they heard the sounds—the metal breaking, the electrical crackling. But they had no time to react: the next instant, they felt an invisible pressure closing around their throats, cutting off their breathing, and one by one they fell unconscious to the ground.
"Done. Let's go find the bus that leaves the city." Liam spoke in a low but determined voice, quickly looking both ways before moving forward. The three of them headed toward where the bus passed, moving carefully and stepping over the unconscious officers, whose bodies lay scattered across the asphalt like abandoned dolls.
A few minutes later, they were there, at the stop, waiting for the bus. The atmosphere was tense and silent. Besides them, there was one other person: a middle-aged man pacing back and forth, checking his phone with growing impatience. A few seconds later, the sound of the phone breaking the silence caught everyone's attention.
"Randy, did you find out why the bus hasn't arrived? I've been waiting for an hour." The man spoke with clear impatience, running a hand through his hair and frowning as he looked at the empty street.
Hearing this, Liam and the others sharpened their hearing, exchanging tense glances, attentive to what would be answered on the other end of the call.
"I'm sorry, Paul, you'll have to travel another day. The bus station had an accident last night, and it'll take a few days before they can operate again." Randy's voice came through the phone's speaker.
"Shit, right now, when I had a really important job interview." Paul said, lowering his arm in frustration and lightly kicking the ground.
Liam went rigid when he heard that. His eyes narrowed, and a bitter sensation spread through his chest. That accident couldn't be a coincidence. Pennywise caused it so we couldn't escape.
Liam clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms, and said with determination, "We're going on foot."
Then he looked at Carrie and his mother before starting to move again.
"Damn Pennywise won't leave us alone." Carrie said with restrained anger, grinding her teeth. After what happened in her dream, she couldn't help developing a deep hatred mixed with fear toward that thing.
"There's nothing we can do. He sees us as food that's already on his plate—our job is to get off the plate as fast as possible." Liam replied coldly, keeping a steady pace.
"Is that Pennywise you're talking about really that bad?" Liam's mother asked fearfully, her voice trembling as she heard that neither her son—whom she believed incapable of fear—nor Carrie, with such strong powers, had any option other than to run.
Liam and Carrie only nodded, without needing words.
"Do everything I tell you if that thing shows up." Liam said seriously, looking her straight in the eyes.
His mother nodded silently, already used to following his orders, swallowing her fear.
…
A few hours had passed. Fatigue was beginning to show in their bodies when they were just minutes away from leaving town. At that moment, a car approached from behind and stopped beside them. Inside was a couple watching them with apparent kindness.
"Want a ride to the next town?" they asked with a friendly smile, too perfect.
"No, thank you, we're fine." Liam replied immediately. Something about that couple caused him deep discomfort, a dark premonition.
"Come on, you'll save a lot of time." The couple insisted, maintaining their fixed smiles.
Liam's mother was exhausted and, if it weren't for him, she would have accepted. But seeing the determination on Liam's face, she said nothing.
"No." Liam said firmly, without stopping, and they kept walking.
At that moment, the couple's smiles twisted in an unnatural way. Their faces began to merge with the car, and the vehicle started to change: metal turned into flesh, writhing, pulsing, deforming more and more. In a matter of seconds, there was no couple and no car. Pennywise stood there.
"Annoying kids never like to follow the script." Pennywise said in a mocking voice.
The three of their hearts stopped when they heard that behind them. They turned slowly, finding Pennywise standing there, staring at them.
Liam's mother was the most frightened when she saw that horrible clown watching them with pure malice from a few meters away. Her breathing became erratic.
Liam turned serious instantly and said telepathically, "Carrie, get us flying out of town as fast as you can."
"Yes." She replied quickly, closing her eyes for a second to concentrate. Moments later, the three of them began to float thanks to Carrie's telekinesis.
"Mom, close your eyes. Don't open them no matter what you hear." Liam said firmly, holding her so she wouldn't lose her balance.
His mother nodded fearfully and shut her eyes tightly, pressing her lips together.
"No, they're fun. Don't you want to stay and play with me for a while? Just hiding things, talking in your minds." Pennywise said, his voice echoing with mockery.
Carrie completely ignored his words and accelerated at full speed, propelling them far faster than a race car at maximum speed. The wind slammed violently against their faces.
Pennywise didn't move, as if he weren't worried at all. He just smiled, watching them fly.
A few minutes later, when they should have already left town, Liam realized what was happening. The surroundings weren't changing. Pennywise was manipulating reality, making the road never end.
"You've already realized what's going to happen—you're not going to escape."
As he said that, Pennywise began to change. His body grew grotesquely, scales sprouted, his limbs elongated, two massive legs appeared along with two colossal hands. In seconds, he transformed into Godzilla.
"Shit, we're in trouble." Liam said, his eyes wide as he saw Godzilla staring up at them.
Liam instantly knew he had to use his mission reward now, or they would never get out of there.
"Carrie, drink what I'm about to give you quickly. You'll feel dizzy, but I trust you'll be able to control it." Liam said telepathically, urgently.
Carrie didn't know what he was talking about, but she was terrified seeing Godzilla looking at them. She would accept anything Liam believed would keep them alive.
Seeing that Carrie agreed, Liam didn't hesitate any longer and took out the binding brew he had received as a mission reward.
Carrie took it quickly and drank it in one gulp. Instantly, the world spun; she felt dizzy, but at the same time she noticed her fear disappear, replaced by a burning sensation, as if power were running through her veins like living blood.
Her eyes glowed yellow. She raised her hand and slapped the air, aiming toward Godzilla, causing him to lose his balance and crash to the ground with a thunderous impact that made everything shake.
"Huh?" Pennywise, transformed into Godzilla, sounded genuinely surprised. He hadn't been prepared for a hit like that, and that was why he had fallen.
From that day on, Pennywise hates that brew created by the natives of Derry.